The excitement of decorating a baby’s room is a wonderful rite of passage for every parent. It’s also a big business for manufacturers. If you look in any baby related catalog, the choices for furniture, bedding and toys seems unlimited. But even though having so many options for matching sheets, blankets, crib bumpers and stuffed animals for your baby’s crib may seem appealing, these items put infants at increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)* as well as suffocation, strangulation and entrapment.
It is well known that there are significant disparities in some medical conditions between different races and ethnicities, and SIDS risks are no exception. In infants born to black mothers, the rate of SIDS is more than twice that of white, non-Hispanic infants. In addition, black infants have much higher rates of death due to accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, often caused by unsafe bedding items.
To better understand the reasons why the use of soft bedding is more prominent in black families, researchers from Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C. recently conducted a study of infant bedding practices in black mothers. It’s hoped that by compiling this type of data, the medical community can better identify and educate at-risk families, resulting in safer infant sleep surfaces in the United States. Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Boston Children’s Hospital. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
Claire McCarthy,MD
If you haven’t seen the movie “WALL-E”, you should.
Not just because the robot hero (named WALL-E) is wonderful, but also because the movie is a great cautionary tale.
The movie takes place in the future. Mankind has polluted earth so badly that it is uninhabitable. Everyone took off in a spaceship that now roams space, leaving only robots (like WALL-E) behind. The people spend their days sitting in moving seats, watching huge TV’s, and eating super-sized portions of junk food. They are all incredibly fat, and between their size and the fact that they sit in the moving seats all day, they can barely walk (I know this sounds awful, but it’s actually a happy movie.) Full story »
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) which is the leading cause of death for infants between 1 and 12 months old in the United States, has long mystified doctors and researchers.
Now, after more than 20 years of research, researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston are taking the next step and have linked SIDS with low production of serotonin in the brainstem. The findings, published in the Feb. 3 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, may give a concrete approach to identifying babies at risk for SIDS. Full story »
Most people know that smoking is bad for the people who light up a cigarette and inhale. And most non-smokers know that inhaling someone else’s smoke can be unpleasant. But is it dangerous?
High in toxic chemicals, secondhand smoke causes or contributes to many health problems, including heart disease, cancer, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). A new study, out this month, adds to the growing evidence that exposure to secondhand smoke is especially concerning for children. Full story »
Just getting a baby to sleep can seem like a success. But improper sleeping positions can be dangerous. An upcoming study in Pediatrics reveals that many pictures of infants in parenting magazines feature unsafe sleeping environments, potentially putting children at risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Do you have a Children's Hospital Boston story you'd like heard? By sharing your Children's story you can be a great source of inspiration and encouragement to families who are going through similar situations. And it’s a great way to find support by connecting with others. Share your story today »
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